Customer Reviews

The Sackett Brand

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This has to be one of the best of Louis Lamour. What makes this one stand apart is that it is less predictable than his other novels, in that everyone doesn't end up riding away into the sunset. It has been years since I read this novel, but I can still remember it vividly.

I've read all of Louis L'Amour's westerns, and appreciate the straight-arrow ethics of his heroes and heroines, the starkness of the environment and their responses to it, and the appreciation of the men and women's appraisals of each other. Most are truly love stories, with action/adventure wrapped around them. This is also one of his saddest stories.

Told in the first person, Tell is shot, and by the time he's able to recover and get back to where he left his wagon and bride, all traces of them are gone. He finally finds her grave. Anyone who knows Tell from previous books knows his determination and that he should not be underestimated. It's similar to movies such as "First Blood" in that a man who seems like any other man can step beyond others' comprehension in his ability and willingness to inflict the same measure of carnage on his enemies. As his attacks and the rancher's reprisals escalate until the odds are 40 to 1 against him, word reaches other Sacketts of the war, and they gather as well. The messages of justice, family, love, heartache, and duty all resound throughout The Sackett Brand.

When I read this book I got a rush because I could tell it was a good one from the beginning. The Idea of the book was what got me interested in the first place. I had read some of the other Sackett books by Louis L'Amour and this one got me jumpin. It is just the Idea of every one coming to Tell's aide when he needs it the most. It has the makings of becoming a classic if more people would recognize it's greatness. I read it almost tree months ago and I can remember every bit about it. I am Seventeen and if I can like this book so much I am almost positive that others my age, older, and Younger would love it too. I loved reading it so much that I could not put it down.

Louis dates this book between 1875-1879, with the action taking place in the Mogollon (muggy own) Rim and the Tonto Basin of Arizona Territory. The Apache wars are still in progress as we visit Camp Verde and while there are exposed to Al Seiber. Camp Verde was originally named Fort Lincoln in 1861 when established to protect people from the Apache, the post was originally manned by volunteers, and then later by regular Army in 1866.

Al Seiber, 1844-1907, is a name immediately recognizable to any reader of the Apache Wars period. Al was of German ancestry who scouted for the Army, later being chief of scouts over the Apache scouts. Earlier he had fought at Gettysburg, among other civil war battles, receiving at least two wounds. History still holds Al, or "Sibi" as he was known by Apaches, with great respect. And his times with both Tom Horn and the Apache Kid remains in the mind of any reader spending time with Dan Thrapp's 1964 biography of Al Seiber.

This western novel assumes a somewhat strange storyline in that Tell's wife, Ange Kerry Sackett, comes to harm, and is actually murdered. Not just murdered but strangled to death. It seems very much out of Louis L'Amour character in that in all his other novels he continually reinforces the thought that a woman alone would never be harmed by a man, no matter how bad that man may have been. It is therefore somewhat hard to accept, at least for me, that this is the storyline Louis chose to begin one of the Sackett novels. But there it is, and one has to deal with it to try to understand this book.

As stated in other reviews, I have all of the L'Amour books in hardcover and read them over from time-to-time. In all my reading of his books over the last 40 plus years, this is one of the more unique Sackett books. If you have not read that much L'Amour it may not strike you in that manner.

One interesting aspect, however, of this western novel is that Louis continually mentions the manner which the Sacketts will come to the aid of any Sackett in trouble. Well, in this novel he shows exactly how that would happen, using the word-of-mouth grapevine the fact that Tell is surrounded by at least 40 gunmen in the Tonto Basin area quickly causes any Sackett hearing of it to ride to Tell's assistance.

And it is always pleasant to encounter Cap Roundtree in the Sackett books. And I will let Louis himself describe Cap Roundtree: "A salty old customer, a mountain man, trapper, cowboy, all-round western man. Dry as alkali dust and twice as bitter. A tough old mountain man who had hunted gold and fought Indians and had the scars to prove it". That pretty much not only describes Cap Roundtree but can safely be applied to all the Sacketts as well.

This book will afford its readers a couple night's reading pleasure. Let'r rip!

Semper Fi.

Somebody ambushed Tell Sackett and left him for dead. It takes more, however, than cowardly sidewinders to kill a Sackett. Even worse, Tell's wife is missing. After Tell determines that somebody of Lazy A ranch is guilty, he launches a one-man war against the cowboys. Word spreads of the conflict, and Sackett brothers and cousins come out of the sagebrush to even the odds.

Typical of Louis L'Amour, this novel is a quick hit of Western action. The Sackett tales stress family solidarity. L'Amour is adept at writing of the lure of distant trails, the freedom of the big sky country, and the Code of the West. He breathes new life and spirit into the usual elements of Western fiction. This is good downtime reading. Enjoy the ride. ;-)

I read this book for the first time in the 4th grade. My dad gave it to me and said "You are old enough to understand what Louis is saying here." It was my first book without pictures, and it lead me to read everyone of Louis' books!

The message I got from the book was: "Doesn't matter what has happened in the past or who the person is, if family is in trouble, you help." As I grew up, I added to it, certain friends, (Like Cap Rountree, and the Tinker) are family. They deserve the same support.

I had my oldest son read this as well for the same reason. He may never read another western, but he understands the message I was trying to pass on.

If you have ever wanted to read one of Lamour's books, this is a great place to start. If you want a good action book, with excitement, this is a great one as well. I have just downloaded this for my kindle so I can reread it at my leisure. I hope you will too.

Hey, I'm all over the place as far as what I'm reading, and by golly I sometimes enjoy reading a good ol' cowboy story. It doesn't take allot of brain cells, they're usually a fast read, and usually the good guy wins in the end. That sounds pretty good to me as this world is a pretty serious place sometimes. Westerns are pure escapism for me. The Sackett series, and probably all L'Amour novels can be enjoyed by young readers and adults alike.

This is the 16th (and next-to-the-last) book in "The Sackett" series of novels that L'amour published. The series is basically a collection of stories about the fictional Sackett family who were some of the first settlers to come from England to America in the 1600's. The books follow the lives of multiple Sackett family members through several generations. The first 5 books are set in the early 1600's, and then all of the last 10 books have been cowboy stories set in the time frame of the 1870's. All-in-all I've really enjoyed the series, but some are certainly better than others. The books are also written in a way that you can pick up any one of them and read it, without ever having to have read any of the previous stories........ but it's really more fun to go through them as a series as there are always places, characters, and situations that the author refers to in a previous book, and that makes it kind of fun.

Anyway, in this story Tell Sackett is ambushed and left for dead. All of his belongings are burned, and his wife is murdered. That doesn't set well for any Sackett as they're all John Wayne/Clint Eastwood clones........no matter what........the bad guy is gonna get it. This story was extra fun as many Sackett brothers and cousins from the previous books came together to help Tell out on his quest to take care of those dastardly sidewinders. He Get Along Little Doggie......I liked this one better than many others in the series. A quick read and just some good old fashioned cowboy escapism.

One of the hallmarks of the Sackett novels is the consistent concept of family members coming to the aid of other family members. In this novel, Tell Sackett, one of the roughest and toughest of a very tough family, gets in trouble. He needs help, and the word gets out. This is L'Amour's chance to really highlight that theme of family and he tries...but just misses the mark. There are scenes in the book of Sacketts that were in other books (Orlando, Logan, etc) getting the word about Tell and leaping into their saddles to join the fray. The Sacketts are gathering, and you just know that the bad guys have no clue about the storm that is about to break. But alas, that storm never breaks. The book ends with all the Sacketts lined up, ready to draw, and the fight never comes off. This is very disappointing. His other novels don't hesitate to bring about the fight - why not this one? All in all, it is still a very good book, and if you are a fan of the Sackett series it is one of the top five. Tell's anger and sadness, and his measure of revenge, are all very well handled by a master storyteller. I just wish he would have allowed his characters to mop up the floor with the bad guys!

This is one of Louis' classics. In addition to being a great adventure read, it will definitely pull your strings in a lot of ways. It is at first sad (when the event that is the fulcrum of the plot occurs), and then eventually very uplifting and satisfying. Highly reccommended.

This book builds superbly, holding one's interest throughout. One can easily sympathize with Tell Sackett, being generally hassled for no good reason, and the hard confidence of his kin as they ride to his aid sets up two or three of the best scenes I've ever read in a Western, period. By the time they get there, you wish that you were yourself a Sackett--of whatever occupation--with the right to stand as one of the family when your relative is being ganged up on.

While the Sackett series is generally accepted as one of the best Western series out there, this one stands above the others. Words are used economically to portray the characters; L'Amour doesn't waste your time. I've probably read 200 Westerns in my life (not many, I realize), and if I could keep only one, this would be it.